Erkan Okay is determined to be back playing again soon but won’t risk returning too early – despite admitting his team are on their last legs.

The Soham Town Rangers assistant manager has not kicked a ball competitively in 15 months since suffering a complete rupture of the cruciate ligament while playing for AFC Sudbury.

He started back in light training with Soham last month and is eyeing a return to action next season, but won’t be tempted back before then.

“It’s slow progress but I’m back in training and hope to be back playing next season,” he said. “It’s been a mentally difficult time as I got some bad advice and the injury was mismanaged, but going into management has helped me and been a massive learning curve.

“Our squad is looking very stretched at the moment and we don’t have any fresh legs to bring in, but I’ll only return playing-wise when I feel comfortable with it. It’s not worth doing before I’m ready after so long out.”

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Following the excursions of a fantastic 3-2 win at Ware on Thursday night, it was perhaps understandable that Soham put in a tired performance in Saturday’s 1-0 home defeat to Witham Town.

But there will be little chance for them to grab a breather this week as they face a challenging three games in seven days, starting with a home game against Heybridge Swifts tomorrow night (Tuesday), followed by trips to Dereham Town on Thursday and Waltham Abbey on Saturday.

“We were looking a bit leggy on Saturday and we now have three games in a week,” Okay said. “It’s asking a lot of them, and it will be mentally and physically challenging, but we will grit our teeth.”

With that in mind, Soham could have done without striker Marcus Hall pulling his hamstring after coming on as a sub on Saturday.

“That’s probably the season over for Marcus now, which is a shame because he would have played a big part for us this week,” Okay added.

The defeat saw Soham slip a place to 16th in Bostik One North, while Mildenhall Town also dropped a place to 18th following their 2-1 home defeat to Cheshunt, in which Andrew Ofusu netted. They have a somewhat quieter week than Soham, with no midweek games.